How was last week with the knick knacks, ornaments, and gifts? Did you tell Aunt Verna I said hello? Hopefully her bursitis is improving…

This week seems like it should be the easiest, but I have the feeling it should be the most difficult. Miscellaneous or “indefinable” items can sometimes be the most daunting and difficult ones in the house. Let’s try to cover all of our bases.

Feng Shui For Us defines Bagua 5 as the “Center of Good Fortune and Gratitude”. At the beginning of this series, I went into the concept of Feng Shui lightly, not wanting to go into a lot of detail. To wrap this up, I will do the same. To refresh your memory, if you are not familiar, Feng shui is a Chinese system of geomancy ("art of divination by means of signs derived from the earth") believed to use the laws of both Heaven (Chinese astronomy) and Earth to help one improve life by receiving positive qi (pronounced "chee" in English) is a movable positive or negative life force which plays an essential role in feng shui. The term "Feng Shui means literally "Wind and Water": the forces that shape the landscape.

Feng Shui is the Ancient Chinese Art of Space Arrangement that uses the laws of nature to determine "what to put where" so you can: Feel more relaxed, Be more productive, and Get along with others better. Feng Shui draws knowledge from Nature and Universal Laws in order to produce environments that promote Wealth, Health, Love and Happiness. Feng Shui proposes arranging the space in order to reproduce the signs of nature that we recognize as life-nurturing and safe. This provides us with positive feedback about our lives. Feng Shui can help you create a home or work environment where you can feel safe, in greater harmony with your surroundings and in greater control of your space.

Put simply, clear space, clear mind, clear life! How can it be any easier?

This life area may be the most difficult because, in addition to the indefinable, I am going to add all of the other miscellaneous items from all the other bagua that you may have set aside, not sure what to do with. All of the thingamajigs, hoo-de-hoos, whatchamacallits, goo-gags, and what-nots. This is it. The final frontier. This is the last sweep. Everything in the dust pan has to go.

Do I have you worried? Don’t be. You have been working up to this all these weeks and now I think you are up to the task. Roll up your sleeves. The gloves are off. Let’s GO!

Make a Date! Saturday seems like as good a day as any! Open some windows, put on some cleaning music (the Allman Brothers, Talking Heads, and Rusted Root are some of my choices), and put yourself to the task! Now, Make a Plan! Feng Shui For Us suggests, to start, that you identify some of the items:

Items that you don't even know what they are

Business cards, brochures or sticky notes with phone numbers that you do not know who they belong to

Items that do not belong to any member of your household

Items that are parts or pieces or manuals of greater objects that are no longer in your home

Oddities (or whatever else you would define as miscellaneous)

“Have a meeting with your family members or co-workers to make sure none of the identified items belong or can be of use to any body present. Then recycle, throw away or donate what is left.”

Maybe. I have to say that I am intrigued by the word “oddities”. I have quite a few oddities in my house myself, but I wouldn’t necessarily define them as miscellaneous. Admittedly, I do hang on to items that I don’t know what they are. Little black pieces of plastic, or a metal spring. A lot of times these end up being the foot of a piece of furniture, the foam “L” on the bottom of your laptop (you wondered why it wobbles when you set it on a flat surface!), a clear plastic foot from the base of a clothing rack…

My opinion? Make a Deadline. Hold onto it for a month, and if you don’t come across whatever it came from in that time frame, then get rid of it. If you have been transferring it from table to dresser to end table to drawer… get rid of it! Obviously it isn’t the key to the universe, and if you DO end up needing it at some point, I am quite sure you can MacGyver something as a substitute. I know I have!

Personally, I have mason jars and jars full of random in my house. One above my kitchen sink has dice and game pieces in it. I have several in my living room window… one has vintage buttons, one with old keys; several contain old marbles, one with chandelier crystals… I even have an old olive oil bottle in my office that every time I find something fun, it goes in the jar. It’s sort of a… memories jar of sorts. It has marbles and shrinky dinks, guitar picks and ball bearings, chalk and… well, oddities. Game pieces, beach glass… anything small that I have kicking around the house that doesn’t have a home goes in the jar, if it fits. In the top? A little green Army man, to protect all he surveys.

After all the mayhem and foolishness has been culled, sorted, sold, donated, or disposed of, it’s time to Celebrate! Not only are you done with the miscellaneous, but we have come to the close of the last chapter in the Feng Shui For Us book of decluttering! Congratulations! A firm and well deserved pat on the back to you from your old… er, I don’t like that, let’s say good… friend moxy.!

As Tangina Barrons from Poltergeist would say, "This house... is clean!" (okay, maybe its not that bad!).

One more thing, faithful readers… I’m not done with you yet. Don’t think I haven’t noticed your dirty little secret. Just because Feng Shui For Us says your house is clean doesn’t mean I do… You know that thing outside that you are supposed to be able to park your car in but can’t because you have it filled with too much of your other schwag? It’s called a “garage”. And next week? We attack…